Passenger train

A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self propelled passenger trains are known as multiple units or railcars. Passenger trains stop at stations or depots, where passengers may board and disembark. In most cases, passenger trains operate on a fixed schedule and have priority over freight trains.

Car design and the general safety of passenger trains have dramatically evolved over time, making travel by rail remarkably safe. Some passenger trains, both long-distance and short-distance, use bi-level (double-decker) cars to carry more passengers per train. Sleeper trains include sleeping cars with beds. Passenger trains hauled by locomotives are more expensive to operate than multiple units, but have a higher passenger capacity.

Many prestigious passenger train services have been bestowed a special name, some of which have become famous in literature and fiction.^{[citation needed]}

The first occasion on which a railway locomotive pulled a train carrying passengers was in the United Kingdom in 1804, at Penydarren Ironworks in Wales, when 70 employees of the ironworks were transported 9 miles by an engine designed by Richard Trevithick. The first passenger train in regular service was a horse drawn train on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway which opened in 1807. In 1808, Trevithick ran a passenger-carrying exhibition train called Catch Me Who Can on a small loop of track in London. The exhibition, which ran for two weeks, charged passengers for rides.

The first steam train carrying passengers on a public railway was hauled by Locomotion No. 1 on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, traveling at speeds up to 15 miles per hour.

Travel by passenger trains in the United States began in the 1830s and became popular in the 1850s and '60s.

The first electric passenger train was exhibited at the Berlin Industrial Exposition 1879. The first successful commercial electric passenger train, the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, ran a year later in Lichterfelde.

Long-distance trains travel between many cities or regions of a country, and sometimes cross several countries. They often have a dining car or restaurant car to allow passengers to have a meal during the course of their journey. Trains travelling overnight may also have sleeping cars. Currently, much of travel on these distances of over 500 miles (800 km) is done by air in many countries but in others long-distance travel by rail is a popular or the only cheap way to travel long distances.